Ricky Starks On Not Thinking His First Match In AEW Was A Tryout

During an appearance on AEW Unrestricted, Ricky Starks spoke on thinking that his AEW match with Cody was a one-off rather than a tryout match. Here’s what he had to say:

In my head, this was just a one-off. So I had a plan for it. I said, ‘Alright, I’ll do this match and then up my price on the indies. And then just keep that momentum building until I get to whatever the next thing may be for me.’ And then obviously we have the match and obviously, you know, it is history from there.

I just, I remember coming to the back. And I wasn’t sure how the reception was. Just because one, that was the first time I wrestled with no crowd, with those types of stakes. I’ve done that before with WWE where they have you wrestle on Smackdown in front of literally no one, but this was a little bit different. So I just remember coming back, and everyone was very pleasant. They said, ‘Good job.’ But for some reason, I couldn’t find Cody and I think he had walked off from somewhere. But then he came back and was just like, ‘Ohh! So good, thank you, thank you.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, s**t.’ I wasn’t used to that type of reaction from people afterward. I’m always like, ‘Oh, good stuff,’ and we go about our day.

That night, I went to the after-party and hung out. And then I went home, thinking that was it. And then the following week, Tony contacted me. That was pretty much a wrap from there. I remember him telling me, ‘We want to offer you something,’ and I started crying. Because that is about 10 years of hard work that I’ve done.

You can listen HERE.

Credit: AEW Unrestricted. H/T 411Mania.